Mercedes-Benz pours investment into compact cars

Monday, July 16, 2012 - 01:23

July 16 - Daimler will invest another $600m in a German car plant to meet demand for its line of compact Mercedes-Benz cars.

▲ Hide Transcript

▶ View Transcript

From next year compact-class will be rolling out of this Mercedes-Benz factory in western Germany.
The premium car giant is doubling investment here, as it focuses on boosting sales in the category.
Dieter Zetsche is Daimler chief executive.
SOUNDBITE: DIETER ZETSCHE, DAIMLER CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SAYING (English):
"We are very sure that with five new vehicles in our compact segement we will grow that's why we added a whole plant in Hungary for this compact segement. The A-Class is one of the models of this new family where we think we will have a lot of conquest sales and that of course is where the growth is coming from."
Mercedes Benz will release a new version of the A-Class in September, targeting the youth market.
Zetsche says sales are holding up well, but are expected to decline five percent in western Europe.
This, at a time when competitors like Peugeot-Citroen are laying off thousands of staff as sales in southern Europe as sales slump.
Globally, Mercedes ranks third in luxury car sales behind German rivals BMW and Audi.
The company hopes its renewed focus on the compact class will help it drive past both to become number one by the end of the decade.
Andrew Potter, Reuters

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest international multimedia news provider reaching more than one billion people every day. Reuters provides trusted business, financial, national, and international news to professionals via Thomson Reuters desktops, the world's media organizations, and directly to consumers at Reuters.com and via Reuters TV. Learn more about Thomson Reuters products: